Biodegradable Food Packaging

On previous post, I expressed my surprise about how much we consume and
dispose of waste.And the shocking thing was, our waste mainly come from
our everyday food packaging and mostly,they are non-recyclable and
non-biodegradable. The packaging are mainly made from plastics. You might
think that all plastics can go into the recycle bin. Well, not all
plastics. One example is laminate plastics.  Laminate plastics are the
shinny glossy, metallic, or matte material that is used for most food
packaging because of its attractiveness, and it preserve the food better.
According to the manufacturer of a very popular brand that I correspond
with,laminate plastics are nonrecyclable and it is used to pack the
powdered milk, the 3in1 coffee stick pack, the chocolate fortified food,
the cookie wrappers and many more!

Being a beginner at recycling, I felt that all my effort, collecting all
the recyclables plastic bottles,papers and glasses seemed not worth the
time, because the amount of stuff/waste that I dispose everyday are more
than I recycle! But before I let the negativity bring me down, I decided
to do some research on how other people around the world are seeing this
issue.






A food company from San Francisco, welovejam.com is the first company
in the United States to start packing and labeling food products using
a 100 percent biodegradable plastic bag. Eric Haeberli & Phineas Hoang
are the founders of the company. They felt the need to come out with
eco-friendly products but find it quite tough to find the suitable
material for packaging. They were surprised ( just like I was) to find
that all the plastic bags that pack dry food products such as cookies,
bread and chips are all packaged in plastic that is not recyclable.
Eventually, the found cellophane bags that are 100% biodegradable.
Cellophane is a natural polymer made from cellulose, a component of
trees and plants, like cottonwood trees.The product can biodegrade
in 28-60 days. But the cellophane bag should not be confused with
the non-natural ones.





Ecopak is a Malaysian made alternative to polystryrene and other toxic
food wares and containers. EcoPak are made from natural oil palm fibres.
It comes in natural fibre color as well. The best thing about Ecopak is
that it is biodegradable and it turns into natural soil fertilizer.
Hence it is eco-friendly.



So that there are manufacturers thats are concern with the environment
and there are alternatives other than plastics. I feel better already.
Hopefully these packaging material would reach to the consumers soon.
With the rise of petroleum price , I wonder how much the production of
the petroleum by-product, especially as plastics will cost? We should
be looking for other alternatives to petroleum as well as plastic.